Blevins, Inc. eCommerce Web Site Design
Nashville based Blevins, Inc. is a wholesale distributor to the manufactured housing industry. They sell only to pre-qualified customers. Blevins has 13 warehouses around the country to handle the distribution of product.
Blevins' President requested that Charion improve the company's image. It has an annual revenue of $120 million, and he wanted it's print and digital image to reflect that.
IT contracted a company in the East to build and maintain the back-end databases and programming. They also provided a web site wireframe, which Charion then used to design and build the user interface and front-end (the side the public can view) of the site using their new corporate brand. Through the collaborative efforts of the President, the department heads, IT, and Charion, this new web site grossed over $1,000,000.00 in it's first year live.
The Product section allows the public to view all of the products available (without pricing), and product literature. On the Locations section Charion photographed each warehouse manager using the same semiformal background. She cleaned up existing photos of each warehouse to give them a more professional appearance. Finally she developed each location into small local communities for customers to visit when then wanted directions, holiday hours, company events open to customers, community involvement, etc.
The Services section includes special training events for HVAC installers, the imprint programs, etc. About Us is the history of the company. Careers provides an overview of the company culture and jobs at both the corporate and local level. Charion photographed employees in each area represented in the Careers section. HR provided job descriptions and text.
The site was built with the intention of adding and deleting sections as needed and it wasn't long before it was decided to add the Winners Circle section. This is a successful customer incentive program that required an entirely new, expensive, printed catalog each year. The decision was made to eliminate the printed version while making more products available to choose from online. It is very successful and a huge money saver.
The eCommerce section, in the back-end, required photos, descriptions, and product numbers for all of the 6,000 products Blevins sells. The catalog used old line drawings or bad scans of photos to represent many of the products, which Charion used until she could either take a new picture or procure one from the manufacturer (not an easy feat, as many of these companies didn't find it a necessary expense). Some of the new product shots are now online.
The navigation has become buggie since she last worked on the site. Please disregard.
Visit the site live at www.BlevinsInc.com. Contact Charion about creating a customized eCommerce site for your company chari@charion.com.